Her Design Story - Entrepreneurs Who Shaped an Industry (1900s -1960s)

For readers who loved In the Company of Women and Wisdom of Wildly Creative Women, a new feminist archive that unearths the untold stories of women in design.

The story of design, as we know it, is incomplete. Her Design Story uncovers the lives and legacies of eighteen women who helped build the design profession but have been overlooked in its recorded history. From interior decorators and architects to textile innovators and creative entrepreneurs, these women built studios, brands, and careers in systems that often failed to acknowledge their work or authority.

Blending narrative storytelling with cultural history, this book shows how patterns of erasure, misattribution, and minimization have shaped both the design profession and the women who’ve been part of it. Although these stories originate from the early twentieth century, these pioneers’ struggles feel surprisingly modern, echoing ongoing conversations about authorship, equity, and visibility in creative fields.

Written for those interested in creativity, culture, and the stories behind the work, Her Design Story provides both inspiration and perspective—encouraging readers to reevaluate whose voices shape our creative legacy and explaining why reclaiming these voices, and in doing so changing our view of design itself, is so necessary.